THE ANIOMA SOCIETY RESPECTS THE SENIOR BEFORE THE JUNIOR

THE ANIOMA SOCIETY RESPECTS THE SENIOR BEFORE THE JUNIOR

The Yoruba are one of the Nigerian groups that believe that by age, the junior must accord the senior necessary attitudes of high consideration or high regard. It is not therefore uncommon to hear the "Aunti mi" or "brother mi" prefixes before the names of their seniors are pronounced. 

As for the the Anioma people especially the Enuani subgroup, they also believe in seniority. It is the  cultural belief of the people that the junior should respect the senior. They have some particular unique ways they groom their children to achieve this in their society. 

In the traditional Enuani society, when siblings have finished eating from the same plate, the parent shares the meat then he asks the senior to pick his own share of the meat before the junior. This is when you hear "hali". 

When the junior spanks the senior first, you hear the mother scream, "Ina eji aka nta ahata aka ukwu?" The mother may be compelled to spank him in return to send back the message that he must respect his senior.

This also applies to kola nut. After the kola nut is broken, the senior picks before the junior. No matter the hurry, the senior must pick first. 

Picking before one's senior may send some messages of bad omen. You may have rejected his seniority over you, in which case, the gathering seeks to publicly discern the senior between the duo. Fantastically, I was at a book launch in Lagos and kola nut was to be broken and once it was placed before the members of the high table, Dr. Austin Izagbo, the present President-General of the Ibusa Community Development Union, much to the surprise of all, mentioned his age and asked whether any older man was present, and silence was what followed. 

He then raised to the kola to the air, said the required prayers and eventually broke it.

Once kola nut was placed before me to be broken, just then someone noticed an older person by the corner, and it was moved away from me. In a very grave circumstance, to pick the kola before one's elder may lightly mean to pick 'death'. This is when you hear, "Iga aha chem Orji?' 

Once I visited foremost Nollywood Producer and Director, Evangelist Felix Nkadi, and as I made to greet his wife first, he quickly intervened. He said to me. "You are not the one to greet her first" and I understood what the man respected for his knowledge of Ibusa culture meant. 

Even in funeral rites, the Anioma society seems tailored towards the senior before the junior for the first male and female count before the rest siblings. It is always the senior before the junior.